As Islanders Season Ends, John Tavares Ponders a Tough Call

The Islanders star John Tavares can be an unrestricted free agent after this season, which will end with the team missing the playoffs again.CreditCreditJulio Cortez/Associated Press

By Allan Kreda

April 5, 2018

The Islanders are missing the playoffs for the second straight year and the sixth time in the nine-year career of John Tavares, their franchise cornerstone.

Tavares can become an unrestricted free agent in July, and though the Islanders’ majority owner, Jon Ledecky, and General Manager Garth Snow have repeatedly said they want Tavares to remain an Islander, his future with the team was a swirling cloud over the organization ahead of their home finale Thursday, a 2-1 win over the Rangers.

The outwardly unflappable Tavares this week continued to decline discussing his contract status before what could be his final home game as an Islander. But he did express acute disappointment at again being on the outside looking in as the postseason begin next week.

“Being where we are is tough; missing the playoffs is tough,” Tavares said Wednesday after practice. “We’re going to be watching again. It’s another missed opportunity.”

After the win on Thursday, he offered little more. “I’m not trying to look at it as the end because that hasn’t been determined,” he said.

While the Rangers will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2010, they have made public pronouncements about their plan to rebuild, and already have made numerous moves to begin that process. The Islanders, by contrast, appear to be spinning their wheels.

Their defense allowed a league-high 293 goals this season. And though the Islanders have received impressive production from the 20-year-old center Mathew Barzal, who leads all rookies with 83 points, and left wing Anders Lee, who has a career-best 39 goals, the team lacks offensive depth and production after the top two lines.

Tavares, 27, has accrued his usual steady numbers, tying for the team lead with 83 points. But the relentless losing of the past three months has had him speaking with a hint of finality. He will sign a lucrative long-term contract this summer. The question is where.

“I said early in the season I would try to give everything I had to this group for as long as it goes,” said Tavares, the first overall pick by the Islanders in 2009. “I just try to handle myself the way I believe is right and be the best captain I can be. I worry about my own game and what I can control.”

Doug Weight, finishing his first full season behind the bench after replacing Jack Capuano midway through last season, acknowledged that the Islanders could be facing the end of an era if Tavares moves on, but he would not extend thoughts beyond this weekend, when the Islanders will close another disappointing season with with a game at Detroit on Saturday.

“You think about it, but I don’t think anything will change for him,” Weight said of Tavares. “As per usual he goes to work. I’m sure he will take it all in. You hope that’s not the scenario.”

Perhaps the most peculiar part of the Islanders’ season was how strongly they started at home only to falter in recent months. After an overtime victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Dec. 16, the Islanders were 10-2-2 in Brooklyn and 18-12-3 over all. But the steady defenseman Calvin de Haan injured his shoulder on the game’s winning play that night and has not played since.

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Mathew Barzal, a rookie center, has been a bright spot for the Islanders with 22 goals and 60 assists heading into Thursday's game against the Rangers.CreditAdam Hunger/Associated Press

Four days later, at Belmont Park, Tavares joined Ledecky, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and N.H.L. Commissioner Gary Bettman to announce a billion-dollar construction project that could have the Islanders skating in a new arena by the 2021-22 season.

But since that news became public, the Islanders have been terrible at home — with an 9-16-2 mark starting with a Dec. 19 loss to Detroit the night before the Belmont news conference.

In late January, the Islanders said they would share home games over the next three seasons between Barclays Center and Nassau Coliseum, their renovated but downsized former arena.

Tavares maintained all season he did not want his contract situation to be a distraction. He watched his teammates Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen go through the same process two years ago and emphasized again on Wednesday that there would be ample time to mull his future after the season.

“I will start to think about it more and more in the days and weeks after the season,” he said. “Once the season is over and you take some time not to think about hockey for a few days, it gives you a chance to get a better sense of why things ended up the way they did.”

In addition to Barzal, another bright spot has been his fellow 20-year-old forward, Anthony Beauvillier, who has 21 goals in his second full season.

Weight has high hopes for his young duo and speaks like a coach eager to start to next season with his protégés.

“We’re still going through our video and our teaching as much as we can with Mathew,” Weight said. “He’s going to have a heavier load next year. It’s a real big off-season for guys like him and Anthony. At that age, you have to push yourself in the weight room, continuing to work on skating and just learning the game.”

Since Snow went from backup goaltender to general manager in July 2006, his draft record beyond Tavares, Barzal and Beauvillier has been spotty. The Islanders traded first-round picks Nino Niederreiter, Ryan Strome and Griffin Reinhart, and forwards Michael Dal Colle and Josh Ho-Sang, both picked in the first round of 2014, are in the American Hockey League.

Trading defenseman Travis Hamonic to Calgary last June yielded the Islanders extra first- and second-round picks in this year’s draft, but it also left a void on the blueline that the team has been unable to fill.

For Lee, who was injured during the 2016 playoffs, when the Islanders won their only postseason series since 1993, this campaign has produced mixed emotions. He has excelled on the top line with Tavares and Josh Bailey — who also set career highs and signed a six-year contract extension in February — but Lee’s angst is palpable.

“This year feels different because we’ve been out of it for so long,” he said. “The games still mean a lot, but you have that feeling of hollowness.”

SLAPSHOTS

Stan Fischler, who is retiring, worked his last Islander telecast on MSG Network. Fischler, 86, has been part of Islander broadcasts since 1975 and has covered hockey for more than 60 years.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B10 of the New York edition with the headline: Islanders End With a Win, but May Yet Lose Tavares. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe